Another Tuesday lunch in the books

Quite an interesting Tuesday. Members of the media were speculating that the outlook seemed grim on Scott Lutrus after hearing Edsall's early comments. "Scott's tired of talking about it," Edsall said. "I'm tired of talking about it. Until we know anything more, there's no sense even talking about it. It's a nerve, and nerves react differently. It could be the whole season. I don't know. Even our doctors don't know." Could he really be done for the season? It sounded possible. Then, as we were finishing up and getting ready to head out, Edsall came back and announced Lutrus had been upgraded to probable for this week's game. Quite a turn of events.

Some other notes from the day.

Lutrus is back at strongside linebacker, though it's not a given he will start. He hasn't participated in contact drills in a month. However, he has gone through all the conditioning drills, so he should be fine from that standpoint. I'd expect to see him starting, and that could go a long way toward him regaining his starting spot. It's big news considering the big-play potential of the Pittsburgh offense.

Aaron Bagsby said he felt like he let his coaches, teammates and family down with his preseason suspension for a team rules violation. If it wasn't tough enough not being able to play, Bagsby was also prohibited from all team activities. That meant no practice, no meetings. If he wanted to lift, watch film or eat dinner, he had to do it by himself. "It was very difficult," Bagsby said. "But there was nothing else I could do at that point. All I could do was train, work harder, watch film and keep myself in shape until the opportunity presented itself to step back onto the field."

Pittsburgh's offense averages 38 points per game, and UConn's task will be to keep the Panthers as far under that number as possible. The last thing the Huskies want is to be in a shootout. But, "We think we can score points," Edsall said. "But we can't shoot ourselves in the foot this week. Whether it's turnovers, whether it's kicking field goals as opposed to touchdowns, we can't afford to do that. We're going to have to score points."

The depth chart this week lists six wide receivers; Isiah and Kashif Moore, Dwayne Difton, Brad Kanuch, Michael Smith and Michael Lange. That will be the main rotation, though Edsall said Nick Williams could get in there as well.

Cody Endres grew up about 30 minutes from Pittsburgh, roughly halfway between the Steel City and Morgantown, W.Va. He says he considered himself a Pittsburgh kid more than a West Virginia kid, and rooted for the University of Pittsburgh as a kid. Asked whether he thought Endres would be a little anxious playing at home, Edsall said it probably wasn't necessary. "You guys know Cody," Edsall said. "You would never think he's from Pittsburgh, you'd think he's from California because there's nothing that bothers him. I don't think this will affect him. He's laid back, but he's a competitor."